Clients only have to demonstrate that they are being thoughtful in their decision making.

[According to the mystical poet Rumi,] the body is not an obstacle on the way of the soul. It is a tool to be used for that journey.

— Poet and scholar Fatemeh Keshavarz

Our terms may each mean something different to different people, but they all describe individuals who are called to examine gender, a process that can be deeply personal, and deeply private. Many of us have suffered shame, depression, anxiety, and isolation.

Modern consciousness entails a movement from fate to choice.

— Philosopher Peter Berger

I know these struggles firsthand. Having hidden my feelings for the earlier part of my life, I ultimately confronted my questions of gender openly and without judgment. Exploration and transition were agonizing yet also liberating, and provided me the opportunity to scrutinize much of the human experience. Now I identify as trans and genderqueer, and my investigation of the nature of gender continues.

But rather than approaching such issues out of brokenness and victimization (i.e. "born in the wrong body", or "broken and needing to be fixed"), I believe gender is an arena through which we can attain personal insight, achieve joyous relationships with others, and explore questions of meaning. Ultimately we can make empowered choices not about how we have to live, but about how we want to live.

I bring an in-depth awareness of the complicated history of the medicalization of trans identity, and I practice according to affirmative, client-centered, trans-positive, and Informed Consent philosophies of care.